Sand Kiln at Levacaloo is impossible

[Jaeger Gatten]

Am I just incredibly bad at the game, or is there something more to this mission? Of the tactics i've scoured over, these 3 seem to be what people recommend

1. Mole Rush the buildings - doesnt work because of the hot sand plinking the units down even when built next to an enemy base out of the pigs sight
   
2. Play defensive and expand - don't work because the enemy just rushes each of my bases with 14 nomads, killing my unit spawners
   
3. Heroic Achievement - HAHAHAHAHAH, you want to train the fox? good luck hiding away her spawner far away from the enemy so he doesn't know of it, enjoy waiting for your one unit to spawn eating up all your resources and then not being able to stop the 14 nomad death squad coming her way

I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. The enemy just recruits more units than me and has teh capability to be hyper-aggressive, I've tried this mission 10 times now, and I still cant destroy more than one of their Gristmills.

What's the Bloody secret?!

[Baleful]

1. Hot sand doesn't kill your units instantly. Bunch of chameleons put that gristmills down fast enough to return to safe territory until their health is depleted. You can then claim destroyed gristmills to yourself and expand your safe territory.
2. One of the rules is "Food over 200 spoils in the sun". So what do you do? Get as much farms as you can and spend food as fast as possible. Build warrens, claim new gristmills, hire moles, ferrets, chameleons - whatever. Just do it quick, but not too quick - starvation is not good for you.
3. Claim gristmill as near to enemy gristmill as possible, then wait for lizards, fight them off, then rush on to the enemy gristmill. Destroy it, claim it. Repeat.
4. Taking into account the amount of enemy waves, Kasha can score 40 kills easily. If some chameleons are guarding her.
5. Water heals. Use this.
6. Lizards shouldn't get to your warrens, that's right. So keep an eye on them.

[Steppenzebra]

ok, let's get over with this ... I've tested this one several times, just to be sure


Stick to this first-minutes build order:

- build up to 8 farms ... (0:45)*
- put down 4 squirrel warrens ... (1:50)
- grab next mill ... (2:10)
- put down another 3 squirrel warrens ... (2:40)
- put down 3 farms ... (3:00)
- put down 3 squirrel warrens (total is now 10) ... (3:45)
- fill up the second mill (put down 5 farms) ... (4:10)
- grab 3rd and 4th mill simultaneously ... (4:40)
- put down a fox (while the mills are building) ... (4:55)
- fill up 3rd mill ... (5:45)
- fill up 4th mill ... (6:05)
- from now on - whenever you have enough food at hand - place one fox warren followed by a chameleon warren ... grab your 5th farm after you have 5 fox warrens ... fill that farm up ... finally start taking down the enemy's mills one by one (build your own to claim that region) ... whenever you have some food left, build 1 fox warren followed by another chameleon ... enjoy your victory (heroic guaranteed) ;)


Now the guide for your army:
... don't move your army out of your territory until your 5th mill is running and your army is big enough! Always place your army on the mill, which is next to the enemy (or, whatever mill is Archimedes attacks). Make sure to rally your respawns to the front line after each wave of attack ... Yes, you will have superior numbers of lizards coming at you, but the mill, the pigs and your army will tank enough to get some very decent results... of course: whenever a farm gets killed, replace it on the spot!



* the timing indicates, when you should be done executing the order ... please notice: I’ve included a small time reserve just in case you lose more units than necessary (if you align your troops good enough it can be done much faster!)

[Jaeger Gatten]

Thank you both, I'll attempt it again

[Jaeger Gatten]

OH my christ. Steppenzebra you are the best

[Steppenzebra]

you're welcome ;)

[Catbert7]

You actually don't even need a 2nd mill. It's as simple as filling up farms, building 1-2 squirrel warrens, and then getting fox. Put the warrens in front of your farms and keep the squirrels slightly behind the warrens to use them as cover. Shouldn't have any trouble with the attacks. Once fox is out, just go around and snipe all the pigs and you've won.

[Steppenzebra]

true, there are many ways. but quick fox denies the heroic (unless you take your time maybe) ;)

[Catbert7]

Originally posted by Steppenzebra:

true, there are many ways. but quick fox denies the heroic (unless you take your time maybe) ;)

Naw I got the heroic that way. Between the pigs and the lizards you'll get it even going fast as long as you're only using the sniper.

[Steppenzebra]

ah interesting, I was some kills short, when I tried early fox. But it's the "use fox only" that'll buy the enemy just enough time to get his 40 victims online, I guess :)

[Iexistiguess]

It took me afew tries but what i recommend is getting about 12 squirrels 2 or more foxes and as many chameleons as possible

[Quirky Purple]

Steppenzebra, your guide worked for me first try after attempting this level 20+ times. I just kept getting rushed by so many chameleons with other strats. Thanks

[mrbigmouth502]

I'm stuck on this mission. I've tried Steppenzebra's build order but it falls apart on me around the fifth step when the computer comes and destroys my second gristmill. Are there any alternative strategies I should try?

[shooflypi]

Personally I usually build a fox asap and snipe off pigs and lizards in between waves (make sure to retreat to a nearby pond to heal up). It helps keep the masses of lizards from growing too large.

Another somewhat cheesy tactic you can use is mole rushing and taking out one or two mills at the start. This can be somewhat map dependant as it really helps to have some water near one of Archi's mills to pull this off. Basically, before you build any farms, you build a few moles and attack a mill directly. Back off to the water to heal up if the moles get below half health, then return to finish the job. Then go back to the water to heal the moles so you can sell them for full value and go back to build your farms/fox/squirrels. This works because Archimedes starts with several mills with only one or two pigs so you can position the moles so they are only taking damage from the hot sand and you can kill the mill before he is able to get any lizards up to defend.

[mrbigmouth502]

Originally posted by shooflypi:

Personally I usually build a fox asap and snipe off pigs and lizards in between waves (make sure to retreat to a nearby pond to heal up). It helps keep the masses of lizards from growing too large.

Another somewhat cheesy tactic you can use is mole rushing and taking out one or two mills at the start. This can be somewhat map dependant as it really helps to have some water near one of Archi's mills to pull this off. Basically, before you build any farms, you build a few moles and attack a mill directly. Back off to the water to heal up if the moles get below half health, then return to finish the job. Then go back to the water to heal the moles so you can sell them for full value and go back to build your farms/fox/squirrels. This works because Archimedes starts with several mills with only one or two pigs so you can position the moles so they are only taking damage from the hot sand and you can kill the mill before he is able to get any lizards up to defend.

If I'm using the first strategy, should I bother building any squirrels or other units, or go straight to building a fox?

[shooflypi]

You will likely still have to build some squirrels to defend against some of the later waves, but i find that most of the time you can defend the first attack or two just with your pigs and the enemy lizards being hurt by the hot sand giving you enough time to rush the fox